Notable community advocate group to pay $550K to settle Fed claim | Crain's Chicago Business

Notable community advocate group to pay $550K to settle Fed claim | Crain's Chicago Business

More ties to ACORN are being found. One blogger wrote "NTIC is one of the many non-ACORN branches of the Alinsky movement. NTIC started in Chicago as an outgrowth of many community umbrella groups such as OBA and my NCO. ACORN started in Little Rock. From the start NTIC was not about grassroots organizing, but about grantsmanship ... how to con companies, foundations and especially the gubmint out of money for "training" community organizers."

(Crain’s) — A high-profile Chicago-based advocate for low-income communities has agreed to pay the federal government $550,000 to settle claims that it misused federal grant money.

The National Training and Information Center was accused by the U.S. attorney’s office in a 2006 federal lawsuit of violating the federal False Claims Act when it used some of the millions it received from a division of the U.S. Department of Justice to lobby members of Congress with hopes of securing more grants. Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds to curry favor with congressmen or congressional employees in connection with a grant.

NTIC, 810 N. Milwaukee Ave., did not admit liability as part of the settlement, which was reached on May 29 and announced Wednesday by the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.

“We didn’t think we violated (federal) regulation,” said Tom Geoghegan, NTIC’s lawyer. “We just determined it was better to resolve the matter now and move on.”

The group, founded by the late legendary grass-roots activist Gale Cincotta, was instrumental in the creation of the Community Reinvestment Act (1977), which required banks to lend in disadvantaged neighborhoods. It still lobbies on behalf of those areas, but also promotes and supports the creation of grass-roots organizations throughout the country.

NTIC was given more than $3 million between 2000 and 2002 in federal grants that were to be used in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice’s community justice empowerment program. That program was to help community-based groups revitalize and redevelop neighborhoods by combating crime, violence and drug use.

The U.S. attorney’s office claimed in its civil lawsuit that NTIC spent $207,131 of that federal grant money for staff and others to attend mandatory training conferences in Washington, D.C. A March 2008 report from the Office of Inspector General on NTIC’s activities during those meetings claims that the group attempted to conceal that it was holding lobbying-related sessions instead of general training.

“Although the activities on the official agendas for these conferences appeared legitimate and reimbursable under the terms of the grant, our review of internal documentation, such as preliminary agendas, planning notes and post-event evaluations, revealed that these events focused on planning and conducting prohibited lobbying activities and that NTIC officials attempted to hide this from” the U.S. Department of Justice, the report said.